Researchers also found continued patterns of “coordinated inauthentic behavior” among some outside organizations, including a large network of Facebook pages running ads aimed at scamming the public. The analysis found an estimated $5 million spent on ads that are potential scams, or roughly 4% of the overall ad spending by outside organizations. This translates into about 234 million impressions.

The ElectionGraph project seeks to identify misinformation trends in the U.S. presidential election and other top 2024 contests.

These are among the findings in the third quarterly report from the at the University’s����(IDJC). The report examines ads on Meta platforms, which include Facebook and Instagram, mentioning primary and general election presidential candidates between Sept. 1, 2023, and Aug. 31, 2024.

The latest report found the Democratic ticket (Biden-Harris, then Harris-Walz) outspending the Trump campaign 10-to-1—or roughly $50 million to $5 million—on Facebook and Instagram between September 2023 and August 2024. That gap expanded to 12-to-1 in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania. But Trump outpaced Biden’s and Harris’ campaigns combined by about 5-to-1 in ads categorized as “uncivil.”

The data shows a 4-to-1 difference in impressions on the social media platforms, or about 1 billion impressions for the Democratic ticket compared with 250 million impressions for the GOP. This gap doesn’t take into account Trump-related spending on messaging on social platform X, Trump’s Truth Social network or other media platforms.

In addition to campaigns’ spending, nearly 3,500 Facebook pages from outside organizations have spent $55 million over the past year in an effort to influence the public this election season.

ElectionGraph seeks to identify misinformation trends in the U.S. presidential election and other top 2024 contests. The project is supported by a grant and use of analytics software from , the world’s leading graph database and analytics company.

The ElectionGraph team’s efforts include pinpointing origins of messages and tracing misinformation by collecting and algorithmically classifying ads run on Facebook and Instagram. ElectionGraph also has developed a publicly accessible dashboard to explore its findings.

While Meta allows approved organizations to access ad data, such data is not required to be made available—and is not similarly trackable—on TikTok, Google, YouTube or Snapchat. The findings nevertheless provide a framework to visualize the fire hose of information and misinformation targeting voters from groups with a jumble of motives, ties and trustworthiness ahead of the 2024 elections.

The Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship is a joint University initiative of the and the .

“My concern with the ongoing scams running on Facebook and Instagram is that they look like legitimate advertisements, but they are full of falsehoods and even deepfakes, further polluting the information environment and deceiving voters,”��says , a professor in the School of Information Studies and ElectionGraph’s lead researcher.

Social media scams that exploit heightened sentiments during important moments like elections have become widespread, says Jim Webber, chief scientist at Neo4j.

“This important research, enabled by Neo4j, can help voters and policymakers to distinguish legitimate actors from malicious ones hidden within complex networks,” Webber says. “Without this technology, achieving such insights would be almost impossible.”

Adds IDJC Kramer Director : “Real, bipartisan concerns about election-related violence—accentuated by assassination attempts against former President Trump—have proved no match for the magnetic pull of negative, uncivil and attack-ad campaigning that Trump himself and his rivals consider too useful to set aside.” Talev is a journalist and professor of practice in the Newhouse School.

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Matthew Mulvaney

is an associate professor in Human Development and Family Science at Syracuse University’s Falk College. Dr. Mulvaney’s research focus examines the determinants and outcomes of parenting processes. He specifically focuses on informal educational practices by parents, parental discipline, and parenting beliefs.

He provides comments below that can be quoted directly. He is also available for interview.

Mulvaney says:

“The considerations by the Los Angeles Unified School District are a positive step forward to improving the academic success and mental health of its students. It indicates that educational policymakers are beginning to respond to the emerging scientific consensus that the use of cellphones (particularly social media on cell phones) is producing negative attentional and educational outcomes for young people. When the surgeon general of the United States is recommending that warning labels be affixed to social media, it is critical that all youth-serving contexts take notice and that school districts, in particular, take into account this emerging challenge to young people’s mental health and schooling success in structuring their schools.

“What is so beneficial about school district approaches is the recognition that individual-level interventions to reduce cell phone use are so challenging. Reducing smartphone usage among individual youth when their friends still have them and use them regularly is near impossible. It really requires intervention at the broader level to produce an environment in which the overall use of social media is reduced and so schools represent perhaps the best context to address this challenge to youth well-being in a unique way.

“While schools can take the lead in reducing screentime, which will have broad-based benefits in terms of mental health, the benefits are even more specific to the classroom learning context. The link between attention and learning is so clear from the research and I would daresay research isn’t even really needed to demonstrate just how reduced attention to the present social context is when people are using their cell phones. As a teacher myself, I see on a day to day basis the challenges that students have in learning when distracted by phones and computers. Education requires being in the present and engaging with complex material and phones work directly against that. Getting them out of schools and classrooms will help our students to engage with the difficult task of learning complex material and being part of an educational community.

“One of the perhaps underappreciated implications of this approach is the potential to reduce ethnic and class disparities in educational outcomes. As noted by Pamela Paul in the New York Times (), African American and Hispanic teens spend much more time on social media and so a wide spread ban may disproportionately serve to support those students who will benefit most from a focus on in-person schooling. Given the diverse student population that the LA Unified School District serves, this may be not only an important step forward in improving education outcomes broadly but in producing a more equitable schooling environment for all. Interestingly, in terms of equity, I think it may also be the students with hidden disabilities that might also benefit the most from the reduction in cell phone usage in school environments and so would go further and suggest that they only include very narrow exceptions to the policy and do so based on research-based work on cell phones and disabilities.

“As with any broad-based change that affects a wide number of students and families, there are likely to be challenges. Parent and student resistance will exist and potentially for very important reasons- that smartphones have become so integrated into our lives that it will require adjusting on some levels and that will be easier for some families. I also think it will be a lot like vaping where there is simply widespread disregard for school rules, which leads to a general pattern of disciplinary elevation (which is also bad for learning environments) and broad-based disregard for school rules.

“On the whole though, this intervention may potentially have long-lasting and substantial beneficial impacts on LA Unified School District students, and particularly among the students who are experiencing the greatest challenges withs schooling. Removing these substantial barriers to education may be a critical intervention that will improve the well-being of the students generally and of more vulnerable students broadly.”

To request interviews or get more information:

Daryl Lovell
Associate Director of Media Relations
Division of Communications

M��315.380.0206
dalovell@syr.edu |

Syracuse University

Research from the project found that the millions paid for more than 24,000 ad buys and about 5,500 unique ads on Facebook and Instagram between Sept. 1, 2023, and Feb. 29, 2024. This amounts to an estimated 869 million impressions in the months leading up to, and during, the presidential primaries. The majority of ads involved Biden or Trump, the report found.����

The Biden and Trump campaigns spent another roughly $10 million on paid social media content, drawing 303 million impressions, though the incumbent outspent Trump about 7-to-1 on these platforms.����

This is the produced via by a $250,000 grant from , the world’s leading graph database and analytics company. The grant allows ElectionGraph researchers to use Neo4j’s graph database and analytics software to identify misinformation trends in the U.S. presidential election and other top 2024 contests.��

The research team’s efforts focus on dissecting misinformation themes—pinpointing origins of messages and tracing misinformation by collecting and algorithmically classifying ads run on Facebook and Instagram, as well as social media posts on Facebook and X, formerly known as Twitter. The project will also gather input from journalists and the public about the 2024 presidential election, and races for U.S. Senate and key congressional districts.��

The first set of findings released today demonstrate the importance of requiring social media platforms to disclose details about election advertising and messaging, says Jennifer Stromer-Galley, senior associate dean and professor at the School of Information Studies. An expert in political campaigns and misinformation, Stromer-Galley leads the IDJC ElectionGraph research team. ��

“Revealing details about ads and messaging on social media platforms is vital to provide the public with transparency and context,” Stromer-Galley says. “Failure to do so can make voters more vulnerable to manipulation without any sort of accountability.”��

Organizations that ran ads ranged from well-known political action committees, political party groups or other candidates, to obscure players with harder-to-trace ties and agendas, the report found. The analysis identifies the top 30 spenders that each mention Biden and Trump, and examines patterns in how groups apply the honorific of “President” when referring to either candidate.��

The report captures a fraction of overall U.S. election-related content across all social media platforms. While Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, currently allows approved organizations to access ad data, it is not required to be made available—and not similarly trackable—on TikTok, Google, YouTube or Snapchat.��

“These findings give us a glimpse at the firehose of information and misinformation coming at voters from groups with a jumble of motives, ties and trustworthiness ahead of the 2024 elections,” says Margaret Talev, Kramer Director of the IDJC, professor of practice at the Newhouse School of Public Communications and a journalist.

The challenge faced by digital researchers and computational journalists in unearthing the consequences of AI-driven misinformation on democracy is enormous, says Jim Webber, chief scientist at Neo4j. ��

“Graph technology is an essential enabler to those seeking to uncover hidden patterns and networks of those looking to manipulate democratic populations,” Webber says.

“We at Neo4j are proud to support Syracuse University’s mission to help journalists and citizens separate fact from fake news so that the voting public can make informed decisions as they go to the polls.”��

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The lead researchers — Professors Brendan Nyhan from Dartmouth University, Jaime Settle from William & Mary, Emily Thorson from Syracuse University and Magdalena Wojcieszak from University of California, Davis – ran a study for three months in 2020 that reduced the volume of content from politically like-minded sources in the Feeds of consenting participants.

The researchers found that the majority of Facebook users’ News Feeds consists of posts from politically like-minded sources, while political information and news represent only a small fraction of their feeds.

In addition to decreasing exposure to content from like-minded sources, the experimental intervention also resulted in a decrease in exposure to uncivil language and an increase in exposure to posts from sources with politically dissimilar views.

However, the researchers found that these changes to a person’s Facebook feed had no impact on a variety of beliefs and attitudes, including affective polarization, ideological extremity, and beliefs in false claims.

“These results underscore how hard it is to change political opinions,” said Emily Thorson, an assistant professor of political science in the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. “In addition, it’s important to emphasize that social media still comprises a relatively small part of most people’s information diets. As a result, even drastic changes to what they see on platforms may not have downstream effects on their attitudes.” Thorson’s research focuses on political misperceptions and political knowledge.

These findings are part of a broader research project examining the role of social media in U.S. democracy. Known as the, the project is the first of its kind providing social media scientists with access to social media data that previously has been largely inaccessible.

Seventeen academics from U.S. colleges and universities, including Syracuse University, teamed up with Meta to conduct independent research on what people see on social media and how it affects them. The project built in several safeguards to protect the researchers’ independence. All the studies were preregistered, and eta could not restrict or censor the findings. The academic lead authors had final authority on all writing and research decisions.

The research for “” was divided into two parts.

From June to September 2020, the researchers measured how often all adult Facebook users saw content from politically aligned sources. The results showed that for the median Facebook user, slightly over half the content they saw was from politically like-minded sources, and just 14.7% was from sources with different political leanings.

In September to December 2020, the researchers conducted a multi-wave experiment with 23,377 consenting adult users of Facebook in the US. The study reduced the volume of content from like-minded sources to gauge the effect on political attitudes. People in the treatment group saw about one-third less content from like-minded sources. In the treatment group,�� total engagement with content from like-minded sources decreased, but their rate of engagement increased: when they did see content from like-minded sources, they were more likely to click on it. This pattern illustrates human behavior compensating for algorithmic changes.

Additional studies that are part of this project are “,” “,” and “,”

��

is a parenting researcher who joined the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics in 2012 following a series of faculty appointments, including a Fulbright fellowship in Cyprus. In both teaching and research, he seeks to understand the principles by which parents and families support optimal child development. He has a broad interest in working to enhance teaching in the developmental sciences.

As we head into summer break and since May is Mental Health Awareness Month, Professor Mulvaney answers some questions on the topic. He is available for additional questions and interviews, and you can reach out to Vanessa Marquette, media relations specialist, at vrmarque@syr.edu to schedule.

Q: It’s Mental Health Awareness Month. ��how parenting style can significantly influence a child’s mental health. What would you encourage parents to think about when they read articles like these?

A: Certainly, parental hostility is an important determinant of child mental health and that has been shown in the strongest longitudinal research designs available to us. I think the challenge of communicating that harm is that many of the parenting behaviors described here are still very normative parental behaviors and as such parents don’t consider the potential harm to their kids.

In particular, the physical discipline that is described in this article is one of the most relevant components—many parents were spanked growing up and do not think it has any negative impact on kids. Indeed, many parents view it favorably. It is safe to say though that this type of hostile parenting can have long-lasting impacts. Parents should note that the research is clear—hostility, even culturally sanctioned hostility, impacts kids and leads to a host of negative mental health outcomes.

Probably a key mechanism is in its impact on the parent-child relationship, which has cascading effects in both being a direct impact on child well-being but also reducing the ability of parents to serve as resource or support to help manage other stressors that might impact mental health. I think the more that parents can be mindful of their actions and put themselves in the shoes of their kids in order to think about how their kids might be receiving the parenting behaviors is the best thing they can do to try to minimize the hostility in their encounters.

Try to remember what it felt like to be hit or yelled at when they were kids. One additional key point is that hostility doesn’t even need to be as overt as the behaviors described here to be damaging—an eyeroll or a scowl at the wrong time can also really impact children.

Q: Suicide rates in young adults and children are increasing. What should parents be doing to promote the mental health of their children? What signs should they look for since many say those who commit suicide may not show any signs?

A: I think that since I am not a clinician, I would be wary of communicating direct markers for suicide risk. It would be safe to say though that the more parents can be attuned to their children’s mental health and changes in mental health the better for a whole host of reasons, including with respect to suicide prevention.

I would also note there is growing evidence that the increased suicide rates are linked to increased exposure to social media. The numbers spiked after 2012, which was the turning point when the majority of kids began to have smartphones and there is a strong correlation between time spent on devices and risk for suicide ideation.

While I think the risks for social media and teen’s well-being is beginning to become more broadly known, I am not sure parents still know just how striking the research is regarding time on social media and risk for suicide ideation.

Q: How do you have a conversation about suicide with a child?

A: As with all difficult conversations, it is important to be proactive with kids, particularly as they enter adolescence. Most parents just adopt an approach where they tackle difficult topics when/if they come up. It is important to have conversations if there is a suicide attempt in the community or if prominent figures experience something like that but it is also important to have conversations along the way.

However, as the signs for suicide may not be particularly evident, it is important to begin to talk with kids early in their adolescent years. It also needs to be ongoing, with periodic check-ins and building up the information over time as children age. As kids get older, their awareness and perceptions of suicide will change significantly, so it is important to continue to build off their growing awareness of the topic and the direct or indirect experiences that they have.

So it’s not just about the initial content or introducing it, but about opening up the lines of communication to have ongoing conversations about this difficult topic.

Q: Could parents posting their kids online at a young age impact their children’s mental health in the future if they were go back and see posts? Is this something parents should begin to worry about and be conscious of?��

A: This is an interesting phenomenon that certainly seems to be important; but, it is also an understudied phenomenon. Certainly, I don’t think the sharing of media is all negative and I think a lot of kids would feel happy that their parents were proud of them to share their children’s experiences online.

However, I would pull on other work to note how this could have implications for children’s perceived autonomy and voice in actions that impact them. Children should have a say in things that directly impact them and this is an area where that might be particularly true. I think that children should be part of the conversation from an early age about what they feel comfortable having shared online. It’s really about their integrity and wishes.

Without their consent or in worse cases where parents go against the wishes of their children to post information online, it would be my sense that the children would feel violated and powerless. These feelings of control are important for mental health—there is a long literature that shows how increased perceptions of control are positively associated with mental health outcomes for adolescents. As these posts may be available for a long time, it is also important to note that the experiences might bring up complicated feelings in the future, maybe in the same way that social media does now for kids.

If children are self-conscious about their own social media posts and others’ reactions to the information, that may also be true when looking back on the posts of their parents. As just one of many examples, children might compare differences in the frequency and tone of posts across siblings which could potentially produce complicated feelings. The frequency with which parents are posting this information this does make it an important topic for parents to consider in how they communicate about their children and in thinking about how/when to get consent from their children when they are posting information.

This blog post is featured by the international educational publisher ��in their blog about children’s mental health and its impact on learning. You can read more��.

Syracuse University associate professor and social media researcher�� (they/them) is available to speak to the media about this issue. They said this is less about national security and more about censorship:

• “This is how statecraft takes place in the digital era—the United States has a habit of framing its efforts as benevolent and in the national interest. But the world is bigger than individual nations. People everywhere should be concerned about sovereigns controlling public opinion through nationalistic mechanisms. The threat to freedom of information in the United States is bigger than TikTok,” said Grygiel.

You can see their full bio on their website:����and here is a sample of some of their interviews:

• CBS News,
• Washington Post,
• CNN,
• Forbes,
• Wall Street Journal,
• Time,
• The Conversation, (opinion)
• Associated Press,
• Quartz, ?
• ZDNet,
• The Associated Press,��
• The Guardian,

Please contact Ellen James Mbuqe, executive director of media relations, at ejmbuqe@syr.edu or 412-496-0551 to set up an interview.

Following University accounts on social media and frequenting University websites can help you stay up-to-date with campus news and events and ensure you don’t miss out on important information shared across the University. Here is a roundup of accounts and websites you’ll want on your radar.

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D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF)

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Hendricks Chapel

Information Technology Services (ITS)

LGBTQ Resource Center

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Of course, there are dozens of other websites and social media accounts you can connect with, including ones for every school/college and many of our academic programs and initiatives across campus. Visit the University’s for more.

Grygiel also explained that Musk’s ownership of Twitter will allow him to be more life Mark Zuckerberg, who owns Facebook, in terms of his global influence on politics. “All the federal aspects of the government rely on Twitter too. It’s not just about the person, it’s about the country, it’s about the head of state, and the global geopolitical implications of Musk’s takeover of Twitter,” Grygiel said.

“Musk’s vision of unfettered speech in the public town square presumes the “marketplace of ideas” metaphor — the notion that the best ideas and arguments prevail. But, as we have seen repeatedly on Twitter and the other social media platforms, there is a less a “marketplace of ideas” and more a festering cesspool of outrage and lies, where vulnerable and minoritized people often end up the focus of attack,” Stromer-Galley wrote.

However, Gutterman also noted that Musk’s purchase could signal a change for Twitter. “If we believe everything Elon Musk has said about his commitment to free speech, then you know, we should see wide open and robust debate and exchange of viewpoints on Twitter in the future,” Gutterman said.

“Most defamation cases really focus on an individual plaintiff,” Gutterman said. “So, in some ways, these lawsuits against Alex Jones and Infowars are kind of a novel way to rein in this new genre of conspiracy theory-related information.” However, Gutterman cautioned that a case like this may cause a slippery slope of action against many types of media, not just explicit disinformation peddlers.

For the uninitiated, players must guess a predetermined five-letter word on a grid of yellow, green and grey boxes in six attempts. Amping up the social energy surrounding Wordle is its sharable grid, a glimpse into the mental journey a person took to figure out that day’s answer.

Like millions of others, members of Syracuse University’s Marketing team found themselves addicted to Wordle, sharing grids for fun and office bragging rights. The game’s widespread appeal served as the team’s inspiration for creating an SU version of the game. Named after mascot Otto the Orange, Ottle launched on Jan. 28 at .

Coincidentally, the idea for developing Wordle’s Orange equivalent began percolating across different areas of Marketing at the same time. Manager of Social Media Strategy Jonah Restuccio took note of the booming online activity and began considering ways to capitalize on the trend to better connect people to the University and each other.

“We’re not doing just a one-off, short-term thing on social media,” he says. “We’re creating something people can come back and play day after day. Ottle is a way we can strengthen engagement and provide people a new outlet for doing this.”

Simultaneously, the Digital team saw the potential in a Wordle twin. “It started as a joke, mostly internal, but we realized how much other people might actually enjoy this, too, and the potential in sharing it with the much larger University community,” says Jesse Menn, director of marketing web development.

And just like that, a puzzle-forming partnership was born.

While Ottle replicates Wordle’s mechanics, staff injected a dose of Orange flavor by creating grid boxes in orange and blue and curating daily words with a Syracuse University theme. Words range from four to six letters, with a corresponding four to six guesses per puzzle.

A robust knowledge of University history and lore is helpful since some of the words can seem obscure. Take Hoople, for instance.

“Not many people know that Hoople used to be the building on campus where the National Veterans Resource Center stands now,” says Restuccio. “But people do enjoy letting us know how they’re doing. They’ve been tweeting comments like, ‘I got Lyman (Hall) on the first try’ or ‘I got tripped up on (sportscaster Mike) Tirico.’”

Executive Director of Digital Robin Wade oversees the social and digital teams and couldn’t be more enthused about her staff’s collaboration.

Mascot Otto the Orange shares his Ottle grid on Twitter.

“It started as fun, but I think what we realized is that this really does speak to the Syracuse University spirit,” she says. “It’s a way for us to reach our audiences—our students, alumni and prospective students—and get people engaged with and really excited about the University.”

That excitement is evident in the web traffic and social media mentions Ottle has garnered since its launch. The game is currently the ninth most visited page across the University’s web properties and tweets are flying in from everywhere. “I started seeing tweets in my Twitter feed in Polish,” says Menn. “That was a big deal for me.”

No matter their language, Ottle fans are bound by a shared history and community. And if one doesn’t succeed in getting the correct word today? No worries! A new Ottle will be out again tomorrow.

With the rise in social media has come a rise in users posting their own renditions of funny graphic content, referred to as memes. Professor Whitney Phillips discussed a recent meme trend, ‘the feminine urge’ and why it grew so quickly in popularity, saying memes “create this wide open space to articulate the full range of a person’s experience, whether it’s the feminine urge or the nonbinary urge or the masculine one.”

Professor Stromer-Galley, who studies social media platforms, discussed how young people can become susceptible to online conspiracies. In relation to the recent Astrofest, she commented, “We have this stereotype of conspiracy theorists being older people on social media, but young people can in some ways be more susceptible. We know that human brains really like sensational content, and teenage brains even more so because they are still developing.”

Jennifer Stromer-Galley

Social media researcher , professor at the iSchool at Syracuse University, can offer insight on the proliferation of misinformation and how to stop it. Prof. Stromer-Galley has been studying social media before it was called social media, and has embarked on a new research project on misinformation.

Here are her comments about the toolkit:

“The communication and information science research supports the approach the CDC is pushing – the greatest influencers are people in our network who we trust: parents, doctors, religious leaders, close friends,” said Stromer-Galley.

“When someone believes misinformation, it can be quite hard for that person to be corrected. Misinformation often aligns with our beliefs and worldviews – it fits our story of the world (which is why we end up believing it). And, if a friend comes along and says, in effect, “your beliefs are wrong,” that’s threatening. It causes the misinformed person to get defense and stop dialogue,” said Stromer-Galley.

“So, the guidance in the toolkit is a better approach – to not ‘fact check’ or try to discredit what someone believes, but instead to listen and to encourage that they seek counsel from people they trust, like their doctor. Sharing why you got vaccinated and what it means to you can help, if the person you’re talking to is open to the conversation. The best way to counter misinformation is to provide better stories that can ultimately replace the story that false information provided.”

“The guide itself definitely isn’t for the general public, though. Given that it’s a 22 page document, it’s not going to be something an ordinary person picks up and reads! But, for community leaders – doctors, pastors, teachers – this toolkit provides key resources and guidance on how to start the conversations with people who are unvaccinated to help slowly undo the toxic information environment we have been since the start of COVID. Because that’s how opinions and behavior changes – one conversation at a time,” said Stromer-Galley.

To schedule an interview, please contact Ellen James Mbuqe, director of media relations at Syracuse University, at��ejmbuqe@syr.edu or 412-496-0551

Chock explains kid’s relationship to social media, saying, “There’s this fear of missing out – FOMO – and you see it with a lot of children and adults, as well, where there is this concern that you see something on social media … and you feel like everyone knows what’s going on, and you don’t.”

Audra and Jim Weiss cut the ribbon and dedicated the Real Chemistry Emerging Insights Lab at the Newhouse School Oct. 15. They were joined by Newhouse dean Mark Lodato (right).

Newhouse School alumnus Jim Weiss ’87, chairman, founder and CEO of global health innovation company��, and his wife, Audra Weiss ’89, visited campus Oct. 15 to dedicate the Real Chemistry Emerging Insights Lab (EIL) at the Newhouse School.

Established by a gift from Real Chemistry, EIL is a state-of-the-art social media command center that serves as a central hub for the interfacing of digital media monitored and studied by students and faculty. As part of an active classroom, a bank of several large interactive monitors track the convergence of paid, earned, shared and owned media in one place, enabling users to assess in real time the impact of media on specific brands or campaigns. Associate Dean ��is director.

At the dedication ceremony, Luttrell noted that the EIL is used by students in nearly every program in Newhouse. “The breadth and depth and reach is so impactful,” she said.

An additional gift from Jim and Audra Weiss established the�� in the Newhouse School in 2012. The center supports a wide range of educational programs and activities with a focus on acclimating graduate and undergraduate students, faculty and working professionals to today’s up-to-the-minute digital reality. It was established to ensure that students and faculty are trained in social commerce, social media, technology and analytics, and the influence each plays in society and industry, providing them with cutting-edge skills and expertise that will enable them to compete and lead in new and evolving communications industries.

“We thank Jim and Audra for their ongoing commitment to and support of the Newhouse School,” says Newhouse dean��. “Their generosity has allowed us to create incredible opportunities for students and faculty, which help us to stay on the cutting edge of the industry.”

Also during his visit,����to share his career story and offer advice. The event, part of the center’s annual Social Commerce Days, was moderated by center co-director and associate professor of advertising��.

Weiss is an alumnus of the����program. He founded Real Chemistry in 2001.

Throughout the pandemic, many have taken to social media for comfort and entertainment. Professor Ortiz explained, “If you’re going through a stressful time, the last thing or most difficult thing is feeling alone in that stress, or feeling as if you’re the only one in that situation.”

Stromer-Galley’s plan, outlined in the piece and published by The Conversation, had these three recommendations to fight misinformation.

Option 1: Nudging

“One option Facebook could adopt involves using existing lists identifying prescreened reliable and��. The site could then alert those who want to share a troublesome article that its source is questionable.”

Option 2: Crowdsourcing

“Facebook could also use the power of crowdsourcing to help evaluate news sources and indicate when news that is being shared has been evaluated and rated. One important challenge with fake news is that it plays to how our brains are wired. We have mental shortcuts, called��, that help us make decisions when we don’t have quite enough information (we never do), or quite enough time (we never do). Generally, these shortcuts work well for us as we make decisions on everything from which route to drive to work to what car to buy But, occasionally, they fail us. Falling for fake news is one of those instances.”

Option 3: Algorithmic social distance

“The third way that Facebook could help would be to reduce the algorithmic bias that presently exists in Facebook. The site primarily shows posts from those with whom you have engaged on Facebook. In other words, the Facebook algorithm creates what some have called a��, an online news phenomenon that has����for decades now. If you are exposed only to people with ideas that are like your own, it leads to��: Liberals get even more extreme in their liberalism, and conservatives get more conservative.”

To schedule an interview with Professor Stromer-Galley, please contact Ellen James Mbuqe, director of media relations at Syracuse University, at ejmbuqe@syr.edu or 412-496-0551.

Stromer-Galley is the author of “” and chief investigator for , a website dedicated to helping journalists cover US political campaigns. The website provides an interactive database for easy and quick tracking of what candidates are saying on Facebook and Twitter through campaign accounts and paid ads. She is also the Senior Associate Dean for Academic and Faculty Affairs, and Director for the Center for Computational and Data Science at Syracuse University’s iSchool.

Also, this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that “millions of celebrities, politicians and other high-profile users” are part of a program called XCheck whose members are either “rendered immune from enforcement actions” or allowed “to post rule-violating material pending Facebook employee reviews that often never come.”

A third-party expert to help understand these major issues in social media is assistant professor (they/them) and researcher of social media. You can see examples of their interviews here:��

“What we are seeing in Brazil is��President Bolsonaro trying to ensure that he doesn’t need to rely on being on Facebook’s safe list which recently came to light with the XCheck system revelation,” said Grygiel. ��“Authoritarians figured out long ago that lax social media content moderation systems such as XCheck supported incumbency, as it reduces the political access the public has to other running for office, but it wasn’t a given.”

“Facebook plays along with those in power as they are subject to sovereign oversight but there is a window of time around elections where platforms are able to inject themselves into democratic processes and tip the scale toward those that they prefer through content moderation polices,” said Grygiel.

“Facebook’s power is transparent when a politician is de-platformed, but there can be opaque policy systems like XCheck running in the background which become more evident over time as Facebook’s inner workings have been leaked to the public,” said Grygiel. “We should expect more countries to pass similar laws as incumbent attempt to game elections. We need to monitor such activity but also need protections for all democracies though as there is nothing stopping Facebook from influencing democratic elections around the world. I’ve been calling for ��for years in advance of elections to make sure that Facebook is not able to meddle with democracy.”

To request an interview with Grygiel, please contact Ellen James Mbuqe, director of media relations, at ejmbuqe@syr.edu or 412-496-0551. Alternatively, you can always reach out to Grygiel directly at jmgrygiel@syr.edu.

Grygiel talked about the popularity of the TikTok app, saying, “It’s a nod to the attention TikTok has generated. It’s an established platform that’s being studied now by scholars,��and scholars have had various citation methods developed, so other scholars can not just read the paper, but find the content. That’s increasingly complicated in this digital time, because there’s so much more content out there. TikTok has reached a certain threshold of interest.”

While there has been breathless coverage during the past month around a possible UFO report, Syracuse University assistant professor says this is simply the government using social media as a propaganda tool.

“UFO content is an editorial tool and growth strategy that will fuel government social media,” said Grygiel. “Try to get your alien news from the free press.”

Grygiel (they/them) is a researcher of social media, propaganda, and the oversight and abuse of platforms. You can see examples of their interviews here:��

“Publishers, of course, would love to get their hands on classified reports on aliens but they’re picking up engagement scraps when the government publishes it first,” said Grygiel.

“This is clearly a play for content and attention which allows the administration to set the agenda. The rise of disinformation under Trump is troubling but it’s concerning when the next administration picks up the same tools of oppression. Cannot fight government propaganda with more propaganda,” said Grygiel.

To request an interview with Grygiel, please contact Ellen James Mbuqe, director of media relations, at ejmbuqe@syr.edu or 412-496-0551. Alternatively, you can always reach out to Grygiel directly at jmgrygiel@syr.edu.